Glitch An XMen Story
by nekoue
Summary: Amanda's life was a hellish nightmare, beaten and sexually abused by her father, her boyfriend and his friends she falls into a world of pain, suffering, rape, crime, and drugs. That is until she's saved, by the X-Men.
1. Chapter 1

"Not that this isn't _fun_ or anything!" Amanda said her voice both full of sarcasm and a type of lilting sorrow as she looked at the four boys she was with. Her insides wretched, she hated them and the things they made her do, the things they did to her. Their night, like many had been full of under aged drinking, drug abuse on the boy's behalf, and grand thief auto as they stole a car from the lot Rick's dad owned. Then there was the sex, they had pressured her into it, forced her really. She was vulnerable and they knew it, abused in the same ways by her father and they had no shame in exploiting it.

Tommy her boyfriend and their scrupulous ringleader had been the first to see it in her, the silence, the way she flinched away from people the quiet tears no one took notice of and used it to manipulate her ruthlessly at every turn. It was always, "Am, do you want to stay at my house tonight, I mean it's _his_ night off right?" as he traced long sad lines down her cheeks where tears had tread many a times, or "Come on babe, just a quickie, please!" he would beg nuzzling up to her neck, "I _love_ you!" that word, **love**, she kowtowed and trembled before it, both a thing longed for and a thing dreaded, it was because of that damned word that she would yield herself to him. It was when they were done and she was sticky inside from him and she lie there in the depths of self-loathing and despair that the others would come in and ravage her further.

That was why she drank, to forget them, to forget her father, to drown out hot breath on her throat and breasts, to wash away their weight and vanquish the unholy throb they filled her with. As she turned from the situation at hand her breath smelled of vodka and her eyes were red rimmed from intoxication and tears. They were at their school where they were seniors and she a sophomore. She looked back at the school hating herself now more than ever; for even here in that place where she was supposedly protected no one gave a damn about her. Teachers watched as the boys hunted her like hungry wolves to a lamb's slaughter, where her counselor could care less and simply threw condoms her way each time she tried to speak, to actually speak and let fly all those dark secrets she had been holding onto so tightly for so long.

Standing her back to the seemingly haunted building that conjured images of hell she had this funny idea of where her life was headed, and she couldn't shake loose of it. Tommy was eighteen, soon to be nineteen, soon to graduate. She would be alone with her dad again and she feared that more than anything. She knew what she would do to escape, she'd go with Tommy where ever he went just to flee home she'd spread her legs for anyone with a buck, like he'd ask her to, what difference would it make anyway? And then she'd get hooked, like all the other whores on every drug known to man. Eventually they'd find her covered in, filled with seamen and needle from her arm, her womb scared and scraped out from many back alley abortions, they would find her cold and dead among the trash, where she belonged. Tears burnt freshly in her eyes and she took a few hurried steps away.

"Come on Am!" Tommy said, his tall frame silhouetted by a street lamp, his angular features gently illuminated. Walking to her he wrapped his arms around her waist just before she reached the street. He pressed his lips in a deceitfully loving gesture to the back of her head. "It's not like we're going to get caught or anything!" he said gently, hugging her, leaning forward to taste her lips, a hand caressing her beneath the frills of her underwear.

Amanda trembled as bile rose within her throat, she hated him, hated his touch, longed to strip the flesh from her bone so she needn't feel it ever again, she wanted to die. "This isn't the first time I've heard that line!" she said her voice quavering as she tried to step out of his grasp, he held her firm.

"Fine!" he said jolting her sharply his gentleness changing into harsh painful pressure as his arms gripped her in a terrible vice like manner making it nearly impossible to breath, he added to her terror as he shook her, her head snapping violently to the sides. "Go home to your old man; pray that he stays a sleep tonight!" Amanda let out a sob as she struggled to get free.

"Let go of me Tommy!" she screamed trashing about. "Let me go, please!" she whimpered as the fight in her died away. She fell to the grass in a trembling weeping heap as he released her. He stared at her eyes cold and hard, the he kicked her. Again and again and again he kicked her, his steel toed boots he so loved crashing against her stomach and ribs, making bright orbs fly before her darkening vision as the blows met her face which she so desperately tried to shield.

"Do you like it when I do this?" he bellowed. "Huh? Do you get off on this?" there was a resounding thud as he made contact with the side of her head causing her to futilely roll away. The others just watched, they'd seen Tommy at work before and knew better than to intervene. "I don't like doing this," he lied giving her a hard shot to the gut hoping to dislodge and bastards that may be growing within. His attack slowed and then eventually ceased.

Looking down to her with disgust he sat cross legged on the grass beside her breathing heavily as she cried uncontrollably in inconsolable pain and agony. Tommy sighed. "Hey," he said reaching out at touching her back, she curled defensively. "Come here." He said pulling her into his lap. "I'm sorry," he whispered as he rocked her like a babe. "I'm _so_ sorry!" he repeated. "I hate doing that to you I really do!" he said his voice hitting all the right notes as he feigned remorse. "Hey," he said tipping her chin up to look at him. "I _love_ you!" Amanda froze her mind failing to, for a moment; comprehend as her teary eyes shifted between his. A small sob of relief escaped her, then he thrust his lips against hers with a viscous hunger.

After a few minutes Amanda was set shakily to her feet, her movements sluggish and painful. Tommy held her gently aloft as he escorted her to the front doors. If Tommy had any hope of getting into even community college he first had to graduate, and his grades were, to say the least, inadequate, as were the rest of theirs. That was why they were there, that was why Amanda was picking the lock, that was why she was going to disarm the silent alarm system as soon as they were inside, and why she was going to hack into the school computers, she was good with computers.

"You gotta stop using her dad like that!" Rick laughed punching Tommy playfully in the arm.

"Why?" Tommy asked with a grin as he watched his girl at work, "The drunken bastard's finally good for something!" Tommy, Rick and the others laughed at this. It was true he was a mechanic who got work mostly by the sympathy or sheer desperation by those around him, and never had he once worked a car sober either as a mechanic or a driver, and that is why his pregnant and battered wife died, the accident.

"Yeah, but I mean doesn't it seem a little messed up?" Rick continued despite his own personal depravities towards the girl.

Everyone fell silent when they heard Amanda's hushed and tear strained voice call Tommy's name. Walking towards them, her face already badly swollen and ballooning further with each second she quietly whispered. "It's unlocked, and the alarm is down."

"How'd she get the code, sleep with the principle?" Henry, star of the varsity football team asked. Elbowing Tommy they laughed.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Luther said eyeing her in a way that reminded her of the devil. "As loose and stretched as she is down there wouldn't wonder if the whole town 'd fit." He reached out and played with a lock of her brown hair. Tommy slapped his hand away, before nodding for them to go.

Soon they were all inside, and making their way to the principal's office. Amanda wasn't surprised when only Tommy followed her inside, the others had their backpacks slung over their shoulders and were no doubt going to wreck the school. The monitor flickered to life at Amanda's touch illuminating the room with an iridescent glow. Tommy fidgeted nervously beside her as she worked to alter their grades, Amanda knew it wasn't out of a fear of getting caught, he was coming down. After a few seconds he made a line right there on the table and snorted it before she could tell him not to. Amanda's heart raced apprehensively as he sat on the ground head lolling back eyes closed in ecstasy.

"Are you done?" he asked his voice sounding distant and buried deep within.

Amanda bit her lip, "Almost."

"Good." And with that he was on top of her, the chair fell smashing her head to the ground. His hands were everywhere in an instant, tearing at the buttons of her blouse ripping ruthlessly at her bra causing it to bite into her shoulders, his mouth hungry upon hers, he bit he lips and forced his tongue between her teeth.

"No!" she managed to shout shoving him away. A blow to her head caused the world to spin and dance dangerously; she yielded as he began removing her jeans. Tears rained down from her eyes and a cry from her lips as he roughly thrust himself inside tearing her anew with the veracity of it. "Stop," she pleaded. "Oh please stop!" as his motions became more violent in the end he was beating her with his fists each time he went deeper.

Suddenly the others ran into the office and pulled him off, he bellowed turning on them but the red and blue lights coming in from the window sated his anger. Zipping his pants as he stood he looked and saw the bag had ripped and white powder covered both floor and bloody girl who lie half conscious, eye lids fluttering weakly.

"Sorry babe," he said crouching over her his mind blaring at him. "But life's a bitch, and they gotta find someone!" he locked his lips with hers before whispering breathily in her ear. "If you squeal, don't expect my door to be unlocked anymore!" he smiled. "That's right, your daddy can fuck your brains out for all I care!" With that he rose his mind not yet fully comprehending everything, then the four fled down broken and vandalized hallways and out the back door.

For a moment there was quiet in the room and Amanda fought to stay awake. The monitor's light changed, brightening as it flickered from the dark command prompt screen to Word. Soundlessly, for the keys were not touched words appeared on the previously blank glass face of the computer. 'Amanda,' it said. 'Amanda get up, don't die Amanda, don't die…' The silence was broken by the sound of police boots coming nearer. 'Good night, good bye, good night… Amanda…" the screen read quoting the words of a favored childhood story before flickering off as the police entered.

It wasn't until three months later that there was a knock at Amanda's front door. Stiffly she made her way to it, a heavy ankle alarm slowing her down. "Yes." she said softly her voice sounding very far away as she answered it, carefully keeping her right arm close to her chest. Her eyes were red and her mind was buzzing at the speed of light while not moving at all, Tommy had been by almost every day when he knew her father was out or drunk off his ass asleep, and every day he had her, coursing her body with pain, a pain she could live with as opposed to her father's brand. But he had brought other things too, grand things, things that made it all go away, things she smoked and it made her relax, things she swallowed and for once she actually _wanted_ to have sex, things she snuffed that made her feel invincible, and things she pushed into her veins with a needle that made her feel so very good and far away from even herself.

"Amanda?" a tall man with sharp brown hair, angular features and red sunglasses on asked as he looked at her solemnly.

"Yes..." she said dizzily as she looked to him and then the little Amandas reflected back at her, how she wanted them to die. Her eyes then drifted to the redheaded woman next to him she had green eyes and pale skin her lips were pressed tight together like she might cry.

"May we come in?" the woman asked her voice was choked, that was hilarious.

"No," Amanda said despite this as she closed the door slightly. "My father's sleeping." She nearly laughed, he'd fallen asleep on her bed like always when he finished with her, she hated it but her new found friend was making everything seem… fine, not good but just fine…

"Amanda, are you alright?" the woman asked in a soft tone tears obscuring her view as she gazed down at the inebriated young woman.

"Fine." the girl said tipping back slightly as she tried to close the door.

"Amanda please, you're not safe here!" said the man firmly as he put his foot in the door, still not fully understanding.

"I'm fine!" Amanda protested in a hiccup as breathing suddenly became a foreign action. She moved a hand to her chest, her heart felt like a butterfly in a bottle before you drop it off something very high. She wasn't sure she liked this feeling, but it was… fine… Falling against the door she pushed on it in an effort to crush the man's ugly black shoed foot. With a grunt he pulled it quickly away, his brows angrily furrowed and jaw sharply set. The Professor had said this would be a hard one, but so far it was just irritating.

"She's scared Scott." Jean said to him as tears bubbled from her eyes. "She scared and lost and alone. And Scott she's hurting so bad!" she sobbed trying but failing to regain composure.

"I know Jean, but she's not safe." Scott said wrapping an arm about her. Amanda, they'd been told was a violently abused girl, one the Professor wanted out, but he'd given them little detail to go on, he was unable to, she'd somehow affected Cerebro making it challenging to even find her.

"Scott," Jean said clearing her throat. "She's on drugs." The man turned to her with a stern expression on his face, Jean pressed her lips together tightly before saying. "I can try talking to her." She squeezed his arm lightly. "_Amanda_," Jean's voice echoed terrifyingly in the girl's mind. Her ears buzzed with the unnatural sensation, they seemed in a panic as her mind filled with words and meaning they were unable to hear. Amanda tried to brace herself but it was all too much for her intoxicated mind to handle and she fell to the floor. There she remained on her backside as the words continued. "_It's okay you can trust us_!" the voice said earnestly. Amanda closed her eyes which refused to focus on anything before her, no, she wasn't hearing the words as they somehow, some way formed as fully and tangible, little living things in her head, she felt sick.

The voice belonged to that incorrigible woman outside but she couldn't hear them there was no sound, the words were just born slimy and wriggling their way into the consciousness of Amanda's own mind! Amanda lie down her breath coming in short huffs as tears stung her eyes, she didn't like this she wanted it to stop, why didn't Tommy tell her they were going to make this happen why? She thought panicked. There was a sensation similar to that of waking as she felt a ghost pull from her mind.

"Scott," Jean said her voice full of concern "I don't think she's…" Jean paused unable to find the word. "She needs help Scott, and she needs it now!" Scott's eyes hidden behind a wall of red gazed at her full of great fear and worry. He nodded before taking the door handle and turning it. "Please," Jean said walking to the girl's side as her head rolled about on the floor words that seemed to be half conversations of a million different topics spurted from Amanda's mouth as she quietly wept unable to comprehend anything more than her own world of mind and illusions. "You're not safe here Amanda, please get up, we have to go… We'll take you somewhere safe where you won't ever be hurt ok?" Jean's voice was high and pinched as it became a chocking sob, the girl's deluded mind reaching dangerously for her own.

"Come on," Scott said through clenched teeth feeling more and more useless as he stood waiting for something to happen. "Get your things." He said looking at the girl who's awareness of him was trapped far away in a maze of her own making. Amanda shook her head.

"But it's not safe." the woman told her what she knew all too well already as a semblance of understanding rose within Amanda.

"I don't know you!" Amanda stated before breaking into a shill laugh followed by a deep guttural scream. "I don't know you!" she repeated her eyes darting about the room as she clawed at her own forearm.

"Would it be any better, or safer to say here, where your _'boyfriend'_ beats you, exploits your gifts, makes you cheat, and steal?" Scott asked clearly getting angry. "Or where your father…" he paused, Jean had sensed what had happened to her as they pulled in, tearfully she'd told him, but he didn't want to believe it. "Where he… hurts you?" he asked. Amanda face drowned as tears fell to her chin, her broken right arm beating against the ground with an unintelligible rhythm.

A sob escaped the girl, "I want to die, I just want to die, let me die ok?" she begged in a broken voice. Then she stopped, she stopped moving, she stopped crying and talking and breathing, she froze there on the spot. The two X-Men were alarmed and tried to rouse her, then Amanda smiled breathed out a sigh and drifted away into sleep.

"_Scott, Jean_," came the Professor's voice from more than two thousand mile away, on the other side of the country. "_She's resting now, but it is imperative that you get her back to the mansion immediately. I'm afraid your current mode of transportation will not suffice, flight will only aggravate the narcotics that have collected in the spinal fluids at the base of her skull and the expanse of the foramen magnum. The change in elevation and pressure could have potentially fatal consequences…_" he explained.

"_We understand Professor_." Scott thought, his inner voice grim and detesting.

"_Don't think too harshly of her Scott_," the Professor interjected. "_She's been through a heinous ordeal_."

"_Sorry Professor_."

"_It's quite alright, Scott. Get her here quickly and safely_." He not unkindly gave them their orders before pulling his mind free of theirs.

Jean looked to Scott sadly, but managed a smile. He returned the gesture before stooping and picking up the many times broken girl who was enjoying her first peaceful sleep since she was an infant. The sound of her father rousing could be heard from Amanda's room, Jean's eyes flashed terror. Quickly they hurried from the house and gently lay the child across the back seat. Climbing into the front they both exchanged sorrowed looks but would say nothing, before speeding away from the house that seemed happy, full of welcome and cheer, from the outside, that is…


	2. Chapter 2

The sky was purple, painted with lighter shimmering hues and spangled with an overabundance of stars as the stolen rental car roared across a long dusty highway somewhere in New Mexico. Scott was at the wheel; he was beginning to get tired, his eyes weary and in need of a good rub, but Jean was sleeping soundly in the passenger's seat, her forehead against the cool of the window's glass. He didn't want to wake her, ask her to take over, they had a long way to go and there'd be plenty of time for her to drive later. The road was long and narrow, two lanes only, but it was safer than any main road, they were kidnappers now and the girl they had in tow had unknown powers and a drug induced instability that made her exceptionally dangerous. Scott glanced in the rear view mirror at the girl who had yet to stir since they began their journey east ward. It would take them at least two days to get back, and that, he calculated, was without stopping. He wondered how bad it would look if he walked into a hotel with a sleeping strung out girl in his arms, or worse if he walked in dragging a screaming teen tripping out on who the hell knows what.

"Mm…" Jean groaned stirring. Scott looked at her, she didn't seem to be waking up, only dreaming. He stretched his fingers and arched his back hoping to stay alert and remain from getting stiff. Leaning down he pushed the volume button and the speakers blared with static, he quickly turned the radio down before checking the girls, still asleep. He flipped though the stations until he found something he liked and then leaned back. Scott's fingers gently rapped a rhythm on the steering wheel his head nodding to the beat. He was still a young man and rather enjoyed the feeling of being alone on the expanse before him. For some it would make them feel very small and alone, but he felt a freedom he seldom had experience with before, being a mutant constricted him plenty but, and he would never admit this to anyone, well maybe except Jean, his lack of control made him feel very isolated.

Cacti lined the road in spiny droves, intersected periodically by acacia, mesquite, palo verde, and dry thorny scrub brush. The road looked so like itself no matter how far they traveled he began to fall into a recurrent state of hypnosis unaware of how far or long they had truly been driving for. The clock was his only gauge, and even that seemed to lie as the face read 1:30, he couldn't have been driving that long and still have gone nowhere, two and a half hours, it had been two and a half hours since he had checked last. Carefully he reached beneath his glasses and rubbed an eye wearily, maybe it was time to wake Jean.

Scarcely had he thought of this before something, an animal, leaped out before the careening vehicle. With a reaction of great speed honed by years of training and real life battles with demons, demigods, and creatures as old as the universe itself he stood on the brake and shot his arm across Jean's chest gripping her door's armrest for extra security. The tires roared with displeasure kicking up a raging storm of dust and dirt, the nose of the car bent low to the ground, the bumper grinding terribly. Jean was awake in an instant an all too uncharacteristic scream from her lips her nails dug into armrest to the right and on her left the seat itself. She was in a fit of sheer terror, in the milliseconds Scott had to think when first he hit the brakes he knew she would be. She'd confided in him, the very first time her telepathy had come to light was when she was ten and the mind of her best friend Annie reached out and gripped Jean tightly as she died, after a hit and run driver plowed through her. Jean fell into a dark seemingly permanent depression because of this, until the Professor help her, that is. Jean was always trying to be brave though because, the truth was, despite the Professor's help she was scared to death of cars.

"Scott!" she cried shrilly, her mind unconsciously reaching out in every direction for some sort of control and comfort as something struck the hood soundly, then the windshield, the roof and the ground behind them. Amanda who had gone forgotten in the rear of the car crashed into the backs of their seats before landing roughly on the floorboard. There was a moment of surreal tension and fear as no one dare breathe. "Scott?" Jean whimpered after a short pause, her forehead, despite his efforts, had battled the dashboard and lost spectacularly, a large red spot evident where a lump would soon arrive.

Through gritted teeth her boyfriend replied huskily from the sudden wave of fear. "Jean are you alright?" he was stupid, and reckless, he could have killed them all and he knew it, he truly hated himself in that moment. Jean nodded in slow weak necked motions her head throbbing, but to no avail. He'd been incapacitated in a manner of speaking, large holes burnt through the now molten and stringy glass of the windshield when his glasses unexpectedly chose to take flight.

"I'm fine." She whispered holding her ribs which stung sharply from the seatbelt as she bent to pick up the ruby and quarts lensed spectacles. "Here." She said her voice wilting and shaky as she, trembling held them towards him. After dawning his glasses he looked to the woman he loved, her eyes were red and teary already, she was biting her lip trying to halt those tears and the terrible question that flooded her mind which was still buzzing about them with an uncontrollable telepathic panic. "I-is it alright?" she finally managed to ask.

Scott let out a heavy breath as he looked at her mournfully. "I'll go see…" he said doubtfully, giving her a weak smile and giving her knee and gentle squeeze. Scott paused as he got out and glanced back at the child lying crookedly where she had fallen, he frowned before exiting hurriedly. The hood had a dent, it wasn't very large and the red smear of blood adorning it stood out against the shining silver. His heart stung and a weight drooped his shoulders and his stomach turned, he'd never killed anything before, never wanted to. Taking another long breath he made his way to the rear of the vehicle. Scott wretched, illuminated in the deathly red brake lights of the car in a small crumbled heap was a twisted furry body slick and gleaming in several spots.

"Oh God!" the X-Man exclaimed lamentingly as he approached the badly mangled coyote. Stooping he stifled a sob with one hand shutting his eyes. While with the other he reached out and gently stroked the heaving side of the dying animal. "I'm sorry." He said weakly as its bleary eyes rolled in his direction, they were opened wide, the whites standing out starkly as they began to redden, they were pained and questioning, yet startlingly lacked the accusative waves the man had expected to find. Scott tried to fight back tears as he ran a hand through his hair. The coyote looked at him, neck twisted terribly and took a shuttering breath and nudged Scott's hand before letting out a tiny whimper and departing the world.

Scott sobbed wiping at his already weary eyes as he felt stray tears sliding out from under his shades his stomach turned as he looked at the poor creature and thought of moving it so that if by chance another car came this way it would not defile the broken body further. Squeezing shut his eyes he slid his hands beneath it. "Oh, God!" he cried out again as he felt the bones shift and rub against one another beneath the now seemingly loose skin and muscles that once made up the animal's form. He felt bile rising in his stomach and crawled a few feet away before losing its contents. He stayed there for several moments trying to remember how to breathe as well as forget the terrible sensation of holding the broken body. Clearing his throat as he stood he tried to compose himself before returning to the car.

"Is it…" Jean couldn't finish her sentence, she couldn't bear to say it, she already knew the answer, her mind was writhing in pain and fear from the start, she was unable to reign it in and she heard everything! Scott shook his head as he opened the rear door. Bending he scooped up Amanda, trying to banish the evil thoughts rising within and placed her on the seats making sure to be cautious of her arm.

"Are you alright?" Scott asked after sitting in the driver's seat for several minutes gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white and sore. Jean didn't answer her face was buried in her hands as she began to sob. "I'm sorry…" Scott said helplessly as he rubbed comforting circles into her back. He sighed starting up the engine once more when she flinched away. There was nothing else to say, nothing else he could say, glance in the rear view mirror he felt a dragging weight upon his soul; he gave Jean's knee a squeeze and began pulling away from the terrible place. The road went on just as dusty and dark, lined with just as many trees as before it was a hateful, damned road that went on and on without any remorse for the small life that was just taken moments ago. Scott felt nothing but scorn for the seemingly endless expanse of smooth winding dirt as he drove. After several minutes of silence he turned to Jean, she had stopped crying a while ago but still remained with her hands over her face. He bit his lip. "Jean…" he tried. "Jean, I'm sorry…" his voice broke. "I-"

"Scott…" Jean said, her voice sounded hollow and distant it sent a chill down his spine, he looked at her, his foot pressing lightly on the brake, something was wrong. "Oh, Scott!" Jean gasped clasping her stomach. "I-I was so scared… I…" her voice trailed to a whisper and then died.

"Jean, what's the matter?" he asked slowing even more. "Talk to me!" he said sharply out of concern.

"I reached out Scott…" she said slowly a hand reaching for her head. "I just reached out, I couldn't stop myself…" she sobbed. "Scott…" she said looking up suddenly, her eyes were dark and utterly consumed by the black of her pupils. They shown like brightly polished marbles with the inhumanity of glassy doll's eyes. "I can't get out Scott…" she whispered her voice frightful. "I've tried, Scott… I can't get out, I can't!" her chest was heaving as she began to screech with terror her red polished nails biting into the flesh of her face.

"Out of where?" Scott asked trading glances between her and the road. "Jean?" the woman's eyes flicked to the back seat. At that moment both young women let of terrible blood curdling screams. "Jean!" Scott shouted as the car, its battery faltering and engine dying rose sharply into the air. Neither could hear him though, they were both somewhere else, somewhere very far away.

The young women stood nude gazing at each other, Jean's body long and lean, her breast round and hips gently rolling, with fertile beauty, she covering herself with her arms hoping to provide as much modesty as possible, Amanda's form was thin and wilted like a dying willow her wrists were spider webbed from drugs burning with white hot rage through her veins, they were lined with many scars from suicide attempts, her breasts and genitals mutilated from the same razor, the was haggard and sticky with seamen. Jean let out a sob as she stared into the dead black eyes of the girl, this dark void in which they stood was her mind, and the Amanda that stood before her was the girl's projected self-image, the self-loathing and hatred rippled from her in endless waves. "Amanda." Jean said but her voice was stolen away by the darkness never to be regained. The dark was cold as it swam around them, Jean found it hard to breathe as it penetrated her soul. "Please." She tried but to no avail.

Then, to her horror she felt hands of smoke caress her neck and watched in fear as they groped and ran along the other girl's body, the darkness giving birth to forms of terrible brutality as they tried prying Jean's legs apart. "Amanda, make it stop!" Jean cried as silently as Amanda had all her life. "Make it stop!" she begged as her body was flooded with a sharp pain as they vied for power and then one finally entered. Tears flooded her eyes as she watched the same happening to the child in whose nightmare she found herself, only, once inside the girl they began to rip Amanda apart a dead scream on her lips.

Jean's mind was poisoned with a wave of pain and blood, then she stood, blessedly alone. She blinked, Amanda was on the bathroom floor her words flowing from her wrists like a river, 'Pain, regret, fear, lost, alone, help, no more, escape…' Jean leaned down and stroked her hair unsure if this was a memory distorted by time and drugs or just a dream. She jumped as the door was kicked in, it was her father Jean hugged herself suddenly inseparable from Amanda as he gripped them tightly and shook loose the blessing of oblivion from them, no, they were damned to live as their wrists were bound. They screamed and their world was torn asunder. They were on a bed, restrained by ropes a hanger slick with red lie discarded on the floor. Amanda/Jean turned away, their eyes shut tightly against the pain and horror, a baby impossibly small lie at the end of the bed, one arm reaching weakly up, they felt it, the pain burning in her womb where a child had not long ago been housed, pain from the hanger, the robbery and the shame.

Fire ripped through them then as demons cackling at their pain reached up from the bed and tore them, their claws leaving tails of fire in their wake. The girls thrashed struggling to break free a priest smiled down to them his eyes devouring their fleshy forms before anointing their foreheads with the cross, inverted. They plunged down into hell, sadists and rapists found them a most divine delicacy as they marred their souls with wicked pleasures. The world turned again violently as they blended into one being small, fragile and alone, a bird with a broken wing yearning for flight, a boy finds them and scoops them gently in his palms the bird that they are knows peace, only for a moment, before he gets the hammer.

In death Jean blinked and found herself separate again, she was in the backyard watching a silent ceremony that was held between hysterical mother and dead child. A boy, the boy with the hammer crawled over the stone wall, Jean knew his name... Tommy… her stomached turned in time with Amanda's as he caressed her, "Cat," Jean lied to him in the same breath as the girl as they became one once more, "Just a cat." The alcohol burned all the way down, the bottle quickly empty; he'd brought them more presents still. Collecting the bubbling liquid in a needle he gripped their body and thrust inside making them fight and cry, the fiery needle quieted them though as the world faded from all knowledge, the drug possessed Amanda/Jean making them its own, Jean fell out of Amanda, and swooned on the bed beside her, let Tommy do as he pleased, what was the difference? Their minds buzzed with a light cotton filled sensation as they tried to float away. Tommy's pupils flared, his body trembling like water at boil, the colors of him flowing into the white walls of the room. A box cutter appeared in his hand he was cutting them along their bellies, and their faces, good, they thought as the blood began to flow, just good…

They were in the void again alone, and separate just as before, then Amanda reached up and digging her nails into her face tore the skin away, her eyes popped gushing blood and aqueous humor her scream was silent but unending as she stripping the flesh from her form. Jean cried.

"_Jean!" _came a deceivingly familiar voice, in fright they unified once more, they didn't know that man, and if they did he would be like all the others.

"_Get away_!" Amanda/Jean screamed back.

"_Jean, it's me_." Light flooded their unified mind a soft horror stricken face gazed at them sorrowfully and Jean knew peace, just Jean, as their minds parted.

"_Professor_!" she wept. Her thoughts clashed with his, the nightmarish hell she had been trapped in invading his consciousness.

"_I know,_" his voice lamented. "_I'm so sorry, had I known_." His remorse could be felt like a drowning rain. "_Jean, bring yourself back to Scott, he needs you… The others are on their way; I will… handle things from here…_"

Jean concentrated, but Amanda's pain still coursed through her, there was a pain sharp and as sudden as broken glass Jean was back in the car. "Jean!" Scott cried stomping repeatedly on the brake in vain as the car raced through the air, held aloft by Jean's subconscious telekinetic distress. With an exhausted scream from her lips Jean returned the car to its former place jolting everyone.

Once the car was grounded the world was still for a breath and then Jean leaped from her seat her belly dragging over the stick shift as she collided with her boyfriend, arms gripping his neck tightly. "Hold me," she cried frantically burying her face into his chest. "Please, just hold me!" She wept for herself, she wept for the cruelty, she wept for the baby, and she wept for the lost little girl who suffered it all. Scott, terrified at the thought of losing her gripped Jean as a drowning man would a life raft, for she was just that to him.

"I've got you," he whispered into the fiery hair, adorning her crown with a loving kiss. "I've got you!"

Jean was asleep, utterly spent from her time in the girl's mind when a silent ghost wreathed in a billowing mist lighted over them before landing softly nearby. The jet flooded the red New Mexico dessert with light as the ramp lowered to the ground. Her white hair a stark contrast to the black of the sky Ororo emerged first her face grim with concern. "Scott is everything alright?" she called approaching the still vehicle.

Scott looked at Jean who he had pulled into his lap. "For now a least." He replied honestly as the nimble and blue furred Hank followed close behind her.

"What has happened?" Ororo asked her voice stern and angry. "The Professor woke us and said that there was an emergency, that he could not explain any further other than you needed immediate assistance!" her tone was demanding and very unhappy as she closed the distance between them.

"I'm sorry…" Scott said weakly. "I don't know…" he said shaking his head, Ororo pursed her lips unhappily as she looked at him and then Jean.

"Is this the child?" she then asked Hank coming to stand beside them. They watched as Amanda's head rolled frantically from side to side. Scott nodded as he slid from the wheel holding Jean aloft.

"I'll get her." Hank offered with a friendly hand on the other man's shoulder.

"Thanks," Scott nodded walking towards the plane. "Be careful though, her arm's broken."

Hank frowned at the idea. "Come on." He said softly to Amanda as he leaned into the back of the car and scooped her up. "Easy." He whispered to her as a small moan escaped her lips.

"Is she alright?" Ororo asked him as the two walked back to the X-Jet.

"I suppose so." He shrugged carrying her up the ramp.

Inside Jean remained asleep lying across a bench seat and Scott, one hand gripping the yoke while the other flipped switches on, a desperate need for control shining in his face as he prepared anxiously for takeoff. Ororo gave Hank's shoulder a squeeze before moving to sit beside Scott. Hank lie Amanda on a gyroscopic bed and gingerly strapped her down for extra security. He then produced a minor anesthetic and gave her the injection, just in case.

After they had been in the air for half an hour they were buzzing over Pennsylvania. No one had spoken in that time; Hank had his book, Scott the sky, and Ororo her own thoughts. It was then that it grew too much for the Weather Witch. "Scott what happened?"

The man beside her sighed. "Storm," he said feeling almost natural in his appointed position of the pilot's seat but still perturbed by the day's events. "I really don't know, and I suspect the only one who really does is the Professor, why don't you ask him." Ororo who felt just as helpless as Scott had the entire journey up until this point was not pleased with this answer, but accepted it none the less.

It was during another stretch of silence that the power to the plane first flickered. Hank was less alarmed than he should have been; more preoccupied with the works of Shakespeare he found the momentary fluctuation of light more annoying than anything else as he delved into Hamlet; he flushed with momentary embarrassment as he realized he was indeed not in Elsinore. The momentary shut off of the engines however was much direr a situation than a skipped word or two. He rose from his seat and walked to the sleeping girl whose brow had broken into a sweat. Laying his palm across her forehead he closed his eyes as he checked for fever all the while murmuring, "It's quite alright…" as she whimpered at the contact.

The second time it happened however was for nearly thirty seconds and in that short time as they began a sharp nose dive the three had all but made peace with their maker. When power did return Hank flinched away from the girl whose hair danced playfully with lightning not unlike Storm's, but in a manner that reminded him more of the Greek gorgons. "Beast?" Cyclops called back to him. His mind still puzzling and fur raised by the static the other man didn't reply.

Then it happened, the lights strobbed, and flashed, fluctuating with the erratic power outages making the inside of the jet look like a rave, an armor of rippling lightning dancing over the unconscious girl. "_Take the plane in slowly_!" the Professor's voice was urgent and strained. "_The stress is causing the girl's powers to emerge in full, and as I feared the change in elevation has caused a flush in her __foramen magnum…_"

"What does that mean?" Scott shouted as he began to cut the thrusters and Storm rose to buckle Jean into a seat. "Professor?" Scott yelled after receiving no response.

"It means that the narcotics that have collected in the base of her spinal cord are being released into her blood stream…" Hank said working as quickly as he could to restrain the girl further in anticipation of a crash. "In laymen's terms, she's 'tripping out… man…'" He explained with a joke even he found distasteful, it was the fear and he knew it.

"Fine." Scott said through gritted teeth. The school was in the radar's range, in a matter of moments and Scott cut an engine on either side. "Come on…" he whispered to himself as they closed in on the home stretch. The power failed and the landing gear buckled and finally broke beneath them as they crashed, the metal screamed as it scraped along the concrete ground, a wing clipping the hanger wall sharply before they came to a halt spectacularly harsh landing. Shaken each looked to the other before Scott raced to Jean, he stopped perplexed; she was still resting quite peacefully.

"Hey," came a gruff voice from the now open ramp. "Chuck wants you to bring the girl to med bay." Logan said in a demanding tone. Beast quickly unbound her and followed his yellow clad teammate to where they were needed as Scott and Ororo cared for Jean. Once inside Hank put Amanda on a bed as indicated by Logan.

"Thank you." A spent looking Professor Charles Xavier said his chair rolling to the head. Gently he cupped the girl's brow, his own furrowed in concentration. "Now, I need you to leave. Tell Scott that Jean is fine and will sleep until morning." The two men waited, each with questions to which they wanted answers. "Now." The Professor demanded in a tiered yet firm voice. Exchanging displeased glances they turned and left.

"_It's alright Amanda, you're safe._" A voice floated to the girl in the darkness. Looking she saw a man, he was long and thin, his nakedness gave her a great apprehension but there was something about his eyes that gave her a moment of pause, only a moment however, for a sickening wetness filled her and the demon thrust avidly within its claws tearing at her breasts. Tears filled the man's eyes. "_Let me help you_!" he pleaded, and with that a battle began inside her as a sword appeared in the man's hand, and a white armor clad his form. It had been a long time since Charles had battled the demons of a mind so badly broken but he still had the fortitude all he needed now was her help…


End file.
